Conroe man sentenced in toddler's death

Updated 8:58 pm, Friday, February 7, 2014

Montgomery County jurors have sentenced a Conroe man to 50 years in prison for the death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son, whom the man initially said drowned in a bath tub.

A county medical examiner ruled the child died from multiple blows to the head.

Yoandry Montano, 31, was convicted of felony injury to a child. He was initially charged with capital murder.

Mother at work

Montano, a Cuban national, was babysitting his girlfriends' four children while she worked as a hotel maid on Oct. 14, 2012.

According to testimony, Montano was alone with the toddler, Yastin Lopez, while the other children were outside playing. Yastin, who was found not breathing, was rushed to a Conroe hospital and later flown to a Houston hospital where he died the next day, authorities said.

An acquaintance, Rolando Jimenez, who had also been staying at the trailer, was not present when the child was injured but testified to hearing the child make one loud "yelp" from another room.

Afterward, Jimenez said Montano came from the bathroom with the limp child in his arms and reported the boy had drowned in the tub.

"Jimenez questioned this, because the boy's body was not wet at all," said prosecutor Sheri Culberson.

Different statements

Montano later gave seven statements about finding the toddler unconscious in the tub in different positions, Culberson said.

But at the trial, Montano gave an entirely new version about the boy having fallen from a kitchen counter onto his head while Montano was cooking. He said that he'd then taken the boy to the bathroom because he was feeling faint, to splash some water on him, and that the boy had passed out and hit his head again on the tub.

Death ruled homicide

After conducting an autopsy, a Harris County medical examiner ruled the child's death was a homicide caused by six severe blows to his skull. The examiner also found bleeding around the boy's spine.

Dr. Ana Lopes testified the child's injuries were consistent with someone being severely shaken and struck in the head with a hard object.

The examiner found evidence of old wounds that were healing and a family member reported Montano had yanked the child by his arm and broken it a year earlier.

The jury deliberated 20 minutes on Thursday before assessing the 50-year punishment. Montano will have to serve half of his sentence before he's eligible for parole, said Culberson.